Planning for COVID-19

Webinar Series

Planning for COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all of us, the changes and impacts will continue for some time. It’s during times like this when you need you remember that you are part of a community of best practice, so don’t be alone. The Forum is your friendly, safe environment for sharing ideas, top tips and pitfalls to avoid. In this time of uncertainty its important that we collaborate and work together, bringing together ideas and use this time as an opportunity to learn and continue to raise standards. 

 We have designed three short series of learning academy modules, along with a top-tips & pitfalls to avoid for homeworking webinar and then a virtual networking group to help you. Phil Anderson has written an article about some of the considerations you might need to make. 

To view series 1 and 2 you need to log in to the website. Click on My Account at the top right to register or log in. 

The Pattern of Great Presentations

In this module we look at how techniques from great speakers through history can be used to bring your presentations to live and bring your audience on your journey.

Emotional Engagement & The Power of Stories

Often facts and data will not get our message across. We need to understand our audience and use emotional engagement techniques to bring our insight to life. In this module we explore some simple emotional engagement techniques to make your communications, presentations and reports more meaningful. We also explore the power of stories in understanding our stakeholders and overcoming their fears and doubts.

The Pyramid Principle for Effective Communication

Like us our stakeholders have limited time, we rarely read every emails and report we receive end to end, and neither do they. We may have just a few seconds to land our message and get our audience to take action or read on. The pyramid principle is a simple technique to help you structure your communications and reports to quickly answer the “So what?” and land your core message.

Predictability of Events

A chance to practice assessing the predictability of events through a classic exercise from The Forum to help you hone your skills in forecasting ad hoc events.

Data Visualisation

Explore effective ways of presenting data in a meaningful, interesting and engaging way. Improve the way you inform and persuade your key stakeholders.  
 - Understand why your existing reports don’t excite or engage your stakeholders
 - Learn the basics of data visualisation and how to communicate information
 - Apply “2 key questions” and start the use the tools and resource you need 

Advanced Forecasting Techniques and Analysis Tools

There are many different forecasting techniques and analysis tools available to the modern planner.  This session will introduce delegates to some of the more common ones in use today.
 - Learn about pure Time Series methodologies
 - Understand Standard Deviation and it can be used to improve forecasting
 - See how explanatory modelling can benefit your business

Understanding your Volatility & Flexibility

The basis of a best practice scheduling strategy is a clear understanding of the volatility of workload and the amount of flexibility to need and can afford.  This module introduces you to theoretical models and calculations to understand your flexibility need.  Learning outcomes include:
 - What does volatility & flexibility mean and the importance of defining these for your business.
 - How to calculate the volatility of demand and amount of flexibility available
 - Understanding different flexibility needs based on different starting positions, e.g. annually and daily, compared to average, compared to budget

Intro to The Planning Cycle

Learn the role planning plays in implementing your strategic objectives.  Understand the importance of your role and how you can help others.
 - Understand how the strategic objective is implemented into a forecasting, scheduling and real-time plan.
 - Learn about the importance of effective data checkpoints, change governance and hand-overs
 - Play a part in driving continuous improvement and become the nerve-centre of the business

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